Over the last decade, the study of merging compact objects has made tremendous progress. Recently observed astrophysical events provide us with some of the most reliable information currently at our disposal regarding the population of stellar mass black holes in the nearby Universe. Rarer events that include neutron stars also inform us about the mass distribution of neutron stars, the equation of state of dense matter, and the origin of heavy elements formed through rapid neutron capture nucleosynthesis (r-process). Our ability to study these systems has largely grown in tandem with the sensitivity of the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors. Gravitational wave observatories have now detected dozens of binary black hole (BBH) mergers, as well as two likely binary neutron star (BNS) mergers and at least two likely neutron star-black hole (NSBH) mergers (see Sec. REF  for a more detailed discussion of these events). An overview of these events can be found in the three GWTC catalogues [1]}, [2]}, [3]}.
